Spit on a Stranger- Chris: "Glen Philips, our friend, who is formerly of Toad the Wet Sprocket, introduced me to this band Pavement- he bought their CD for me, actually- 'Terror Twilight'. It's the first song on their CD and the second song on ours, and it's just a party. As far as production goes, we just wanted it to be a really good time. 'Spit on a Stranger'- sounds like a good time...or something."
Speak- Sean: "'Speak'- that's a song I wrote kind of about having problems talking to people and being misunderstood. I don't know, it's kind of fun to be able to share lead vocals, kinda split it up; it's a neat thing to be able to do...We were recording it to a click because it has a loop that goes through it that we made- the acoustic instrument loop. All the loops on this are made from us hitting our instruments, or cases, or random objects from around the studio."
Chris: "That particular loop was, I believe, a nectarine against a guitar case and muted mandolin chops."
Hanging by a Thread- Chris: "I think it's such a beautiful song, and it's kind of a rip-your-heart-out song; just about anybody can understand, who feels better when their significant other is around...In the middle of the song, I had an instrumental song that I wrote that kind of had those same feelings about a person. I kind of stuck my bridge into this song; so it goes from being fairly standard, as far as harmonically, to all of a sudden jumping from a major 5 to a minor 5, and the whole song changes- and then gets right back the major 5 kind of like a dream."
Should've Known Better- Sara: "This is a crazy song full of contrasts and just wicked fiddle/string parts that Chris put together- they're just wrong."
Chris: "I wanted it to sound like two bands were playing with each other and they hated each other."
Sara: "It's just like this huge feud. My vocal is very steady and consistent, and a lot of times you'll hear Chris in the background doing this talking behind it. Just however he felt like putting it down, it was really quick actually. I think it's the first rhythm solo that we've ever done...It's a really good song."
This Side- Sean: "I wrote this one, it's kind of loosely based onThe Matrix. I watched that movie, and it was kind of just a starting point- it's not really about The Matrix. It was kinda where my thought process started. It's about change and being in a new place, and kind of growing accustomed to it, and realizing that just because it's different, it's not bad."
Green and Grey- Chris: "Just listening the the words, it's talking about the confliting feelings you have about being a performer. How wonderful it is, but also how weird can be. I was definitely trying to avoid sounding like a whining rock star...it's definitely not a crying-about-fame song because we don't have that kind of fame. It's more about somebody's struggles with themselves as a performer, and what are they not being able to give, and what are they able to give. It's like a relationship with a lot of people versus a relationship with one person. When you're a performer, you are inviting a relationship with every single person who listens to a song of yours."
Seven Wonders- Sean: "I wrote 'Seven Wonders' with my friend David Puckett- this is another one of those where he did most of the words and I did the music. It's basically saying that we're not as cool as we think we are, and we're not as big as we think we are. We may think that we can make these huge differences, but we're not really, in the grand scheme of things, doing that much. The cool thing about that on the recording is there's a sampled heartbeat at the beginning."
Sara: "It's a sonogram. If you turn up the song really loud right before it comes in, you can hear the static from the sonogram. You can kind of hear this little pulse and then..."
House Carpenter- Chris: "'House Carpenter' is a traditional folk tune that definitely speaks for itself. It's as stark as can be on the record. My vocal is extremely drab on purpose because me being the narrator without a drop or a hint of emotion is scarier than any kind of inflection I could bring to this. The story is horrible; it's basically somebody losing their soul, which is about as bad as it gets."
Beauty and Mess- Sara: "'Beauty and the Mess' was written by Chris and our friend Luke Bulla, who is one of those young musicians- fiddle player, great guitar player, singer, songwriter, and a great friend. He and Chris wrote this a couple years ago, and I remember hearing them sing it- they both sang it; they sort of split it together. It was just a really really fun song; I always liked to hear it. So when we were looking a songs to do, this was one of them. I was really trying to find something that was a bit more up-tempo. There's some backwards fiddle playing on it."
Sabra Girl- Sara: "'Sabra Girl' is a song written by Andy Irvine of the band Planksty- the Irish group, brilliant in the 70's, just incredible more traditional Irish/Celtic band. Actually, Chris remembered this one, the melody was so pretty. I've never really doubled a whole lot of my vocals- sung harmony to myself, and that's something we did a whole lot of in this song."
Chris: "They had an instrumental part in there and it was in 11/8 which is a very strange time signature, and so it was fun to keep the 11 in there and try to make bring some sense to it with a more modern instrumental approach."
Young- Chris: "'Young' is a song I wrote about my brother who is always having girl problems, in that he just can't really talk to them. He always likes girls that are older than him, and I think things are finally working out for him. But this was a song that he was theoretially singing to one of those girls who were kind of unreachable for him."
Brand New Sidewalk- Chris: "It's a song that I wrote, which, I guess musically had a lot of the Baroque things that I've been listening to in it. I play guitar on it, and everything kind of builds from that little line. The words are very...I don't know, I'd just rather people listen to it, really. All kinds of fun things happen through the course of that one, but that's how we end the record."
